The conservative press -- focus on FoxNews
(Greg K & Dr. Luke)

Fox News: Fair and Balanced?

The slogan for Fox News is "Fair and balanced". Yet, analyzing the way that Fox News and its various shows report news stories portrays a politically right leaning, conservative bias.

Fox News Website:

• Conservative bias is evident in the Fox news coverage of the Tea party protests, which speak out against government spending and taxation. Fox news has championed this cause, regularly featuring articles such as "Organizers give Recipes for Effective Tea Parties" that urge people to join and stage their own protests. Their coverage of the protests reflect an unmistakable bias; the reporting puts them in a positive light rather than an unbiased and neutral light. For example, Fox news, on their website, compares these modern day tea parties to the Boston tea party, staged in the years leading up to the revolutionary war, saying "Just as 18th century decrees by the British drew outrage from American colonists, several acts of modern U.S. government intervention have stirred similar upheaval by taxpayers across the land"(www.foxnews.com). This appeals to the ethos of the American viewers, gives credibility to the tea parties, and sheds a positive and patriotic light onto the issue even before the details of the protest are discussed. This blatant support of this conservative protest movement illuminates the conservative bias of Fox News.This link is Fox News' website dedicated to furthering the cause of these Tea party protests http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/08/welcome-foxnews-anti-tax-tea-party-coverage/.

• In addition to what news the website does cover, what Fox News doesn't cover also betrays bias. For example, the Fox News makes no mention of the reports that Representative John Lewis was called the n-word and Rep. Barney Frank was called a f-----t by tea party protesters.(Source; http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/tea-party-protests-nier-f_n_507116.html). This betrays the bias of Fox News, because they do not mention any negative news stories of the tea party protesters. This is not balanced news casting because the viewer is only getting the positive news stories about the issue and none of the negatives.

Bill O'Reilly and the O'Reilly Factor:

Bill O'Reilly refers to his show on the Fox News Network as the "No Spin Zone", claiming that his show is completely unbiased and contains only fact. Yet, he consistently injects his own opinions and political leanings into the supposedly factual news coverage. This bamboozles the audience, because he presents these opinions as fact.

• For example, in Bill O'Reilly's write up on President Obama's health-care plan, he said "There's likely to be more fraud and waste as the federal program gets bigger"(O'Reilly). This statement is presented as fact, yet it is entirely Bill O'Reilly's opinion as a conservative who doesn't believe in large government programs. There is no factual evidence to support this claim that the new health-care program will have more fraud and waste, yet this opinion has made its way into the supposedly opinion free No Spin Zone. This is the link to the article http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549224,00.html. This article is just one example in which Bill O'Reilly, and the Fox News Network as a whole, reports politically polemical issues in such a way that the conservative side of the issue is made to look positive and the liberal side is made to look negative.

• One of the major ways that the O'Reilly Factor is biased is in the way that Bill O'Reilly presents news stories or people. If he does not agree with a person, he will commonly call them a "pinhead". This belittles the opposing viewpoint, which is often the liberal viewpoint. For example, he calls the writers of Jon Stewart's The Daily Show, which presents a liberal point of view that differs from Bill O'Reilly's, pinheads
• His personal opinion on the issue he is reporting on is quite evident. If he is reporting an issue that he disagrees with, he will use negative language to describe the issue. For example it is quite obvious that Bill O'Reilly disagrees with the supreme court ruling in this news story that he is airing. "Coming next, drug addicted pregnant women no longer have anything to fear from the authorities thanks to the supreme court. Both sides on this in a moment"-Bill O'Reilly(O'Reilly Factor, 3/23/01). He paints the issue in a negative light; thus, this newscast is not a neutral presentation of the facts. Also, he cannot present both sides of this issue in a fair and balanced way when he has shown that he obviously supports one side. (Source of quote: http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1067)

• Here is a video clip of Bill O'Reilly calling atheists "stupid" during his No Spin Zone show. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVkq59sFNnc&feature=related. This is again an opinion of Bill O'Reilly's that he has injected into his supposedly neutral show. He is using the propagandist technique of name-calling to direct the viewer to his point of view. The viewer does not get a fair and balanced view of all sides on the issues discussed on Bill O'Reilly's show Bill O'Reilly brands one side as "stupid", even before discussing the issue.

Hannity & Colmes:

• Hannity and Colmes, Fox News' past show formatted for cross-fire style debate, features Sean Hannity, an aggressive conservative and Alan Colmes, a relatively soft-spoken liberal. In response to critic's claims that Fox News has a heavy conservative bias, Fox News likes to defend itself by pointing to this show as evidence that it provides an equally balanced voice to both ends of the political spectrum. In reality, however, Hannity and Colmes does not offer a fair and balanced debate that Fox promised. As the linked article describes in more detail, the show brought on an overwhelming majority of conservative guests to speak for conservative ideals. Because there is a majority of conservative guests, the viewers of the show are presented with conservative ideals much more than liberal ideals; thus, this show is not politically balanced.
• Perhaps the most profound reflection of bias in the show is the disparity in force with which the two anchors, Hannity and Colmes, make their claims. Shawn Hannity tends to be much more assertive and aggressive, while Alan Colmes tends to be passive, and sometimes completely silent when discussing important political issues. The liberal comedian turned senator Al Franken likes to poke fun at the show by referring to it as HANNITY & colmes in an attempt to highlight this disparity. Because the conservative anchor, Hannity, supports his conservative viewpoints with more strength and vigor than Colmes supports his liberal viewpoints, it seems to the viewer that the conservative viewpoint itself is much stronger. Additionally, while Colmes is supposed to represent the liberal viewpoint, he once described himself personally as being more of a moderate. (Franken)
• Therefore, this news show is conservatively biased; the audience of Hannity & Colmes expects a balanced coverage of the political spectrum, yet gets more robust support for the conservative viewpoint.

The Revolutionary Holocaust: Live Free...or Die

This Glenn Beck special documentary on communism, which aired on January 22, 2010 on Fox News, illustrates the propaganda that Fox News uses to combat liberal ideals. This hour long program is rife with propaganda and bias against liberalism.

• Bias is evident from the first few minuets of the program. Much of the bias is evident in the language that Glenn Beck uses to describe liberal progressives who, in his view, are trying to turn America into a communist country. He says "The constitution kept those dogs at bay for a better part of 200 years". By calling them dogs, Glenn Beck has lowered and belittled these progressives. Also, he phrases the desire to reform the United states as an attempt to "defeat the Constitution". This creates fear in the audience, and it goes against the ethos of the nation. Glenn Beck also claims that these leftists progressives who are trying to defeat the Constitution have rewritten history, and all he is doing is "Pulling the mask off the monster". This is the definition of demonization, by comparing progressives and their reforms, such as Barack Obama and his health-care reform, to monsters.
• The majority of this program is anti-communist propaganda. By reporting the negative aspects of various communist regimes, Glenn Beck creates an atmosphere of fear and negative feeling toward communism and left leanings in general, and paints them as something that needs to be stopped at all cost. Dramatic and frightening music, name-calling, card-stacking, and atrocity are all propagandistic techniques that Glenn Beck uses to create this atmosphere. For example, Glenn Beck talks about the amount of people who died under the Stalin and Mao regimes. Glenn Beck and many other programs on Fox News, such as Bill O'Reilly, call Barack Obama and his universal health-care and bailout bills socialist and communist. Having fostered this negative atmosphere of fear and evil around communism, this association with communism makes Barack Obama seem evil makes heath-care reform seem like the first step to a communist regime like that of Stalin or Mao.
• This special is conservatively biased; it attempts to create an atmosphere of anti-liberalism by using propagandistic techniques. This is far from politically neutral, fact-oriented news casting.

Fox news cannot claim to be "Fair and Balanced" when its news reporting is so skewed towards the conservative side of the political spectrum. Fox News and its programs are designed to make the conservative point of view seem like the better point of view.

Sources:

Ackerman, Seth. "Most Biased Name in News". <http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=1067>.

"Anti-Tax Tea Party Coverage". Fox News Network. April 08, 2009 <http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/08/welcome-foxnews-anti-tax-tea-party-coverage/>.

Franken, Al. Lies(And the Lying Liars Who Tell Them). Dutton, 2003.

O'Reilly , Bill. "Reaction to Obama's Healthcare Speech". O'Reilly Factor. September 11, 2009 <http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,549224,00.html>.

The Revolutionary Holocaust: Live Free...or die, Glenn Beck, Fox News Network, January 22, 2010

Stein , Sam. "Tea Party Protestors:Nier, Faot, shouted at Members of Congress". Huffington Post. March 20, 2010 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/03/20/tea-party-protests-nier-f_n_507116.html>.

"Unfair and Imbalanced: Republicans and Conservatives dominate on Hannity & Colmes ". Media Matters. March 30, 2006 <http://mediamatters.org/research/200603300010>.